


Metal to Memory

by cannahal



Category: Mass Effect - All Media Types, Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Artificial Intelligence, Colonist (Mass Effect), Control Ending, F/M, Flashbacks, Fluff and Angst, Post-War, Shepard is alive, Smut
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-09
Updated: 2020-06-09
Packaged: 2021-03-03 22:34:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 397
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24623266
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cannahal/pseuds/cannahal
Summary: With the galaxy still reeling after The Reaper War, Garrus struggles with the loss of Winona Shepard while he picks up the pieces of his homeland and deals with the consequences of a new world with Reapers by it's side. It isn't until he receives a mysterious message from an unknown sender that he has to face a new reality. One with Shepard or not.
Relationships: Female Shepard/Garrus Vakarian, Garrus Vakarian & Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, Kaidan Alenko & Female Shepard, Liara T'Soni & Garrus Vakarian
Kudos: 3





	Metal to Memory

She knew what her choice meant the moment the Child in front of her showed her the option.

Peace.

A future.

An end to the cycles that had dictated the fate of every race in the history of the entire galaxy.

Winona Shepard had made her choice.

She shambled towards the pillars of light.

Deep breath.

Reach. 

Deep breath. 

And grip.

Instantly the fire of a thousand stars burned through her veins. The memories of billions flashed before through the eyes of husks and every manner of organic body the reapers had managed to harvest. A plunge into the previously unknown.

She put her other hand on, gripping tighter feeling so cold that she was burning.

Slipping.

Slowly yet surely she knew she was dying and achieving consciousness, knowing which no other before her had.

Memories of her life flashed before her eyes, her mother holding her hand as she watched her father receive yet another medal. Her first kiss in the corner of whatever station her parents were placed with a faceless boy who made her heart flutter. Captain Anderson welcoming her aboard the Normandy for the first time. Jenkins. Geth. A human reaper. Her friends she would leave behind. All of them were calling her back to the living world where she could feel their body against hers each time they 

Garrus. The lost 

The cybernetics along her spine were giving out from the electricity tearing through it, barrelling and rattling every nerve making her legs give out.

Only, she never hit the floor.

Whoever Shepard was fell into a white abyss of consciousness. Stars merged into dawn and she was born again.

Whoever she was before was gone. Shepard was now an idea in a myriad of wires and connections in the cold, colourful circuit of the Reaper collective mind, weaving and bobbing through the collective memories of every soul ever harvested. Humans, Asari, Turian, Prothean, even Inusannon, further back than them flashed before her eyes.

She was one now. One with the Reapers. She understood what she was now. A blip in time. An existence so brief that eternity seemed short.

Shepard was gone, a memory made metal, a benevolent entity destined to protect those she loved using vessels of destruction.

For them, she would be vigilant.

Peaceful.

A distant guardian on the fringes of the galaxy.

For them, she would be eternal.


End file.
